ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s public debt as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) fell by around half of a percentage point last year, broadly in line with the government’s target, the central bank said on Monday.

Fabio Panetta, a member of the Bank of Italy’s executive board, made the estimate in a speech in London.

In 2016 Italy’s debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 132.0 percent, the highest in the euro zone after Greece’s.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s government targeted it to fall to 131.6 percent last year. The Bank of Italy will issue the official 2017 data in April.